Manhattan

A game by Andreas Seyfarth published by Hans im Gluck.

There's a building boom going on in Manhattan, but it's not just there. All over
the world, skyscrapers are springing up towards the sky. The players must build
as many as possible, in Manhattan, in Cairo, in Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, Sydney and
Hong Kong.

The only question is, do they prefer to build their own blocks, or is it easier
to take them over from their opponents? Each player must decide for themselves,
but who is going to quietly stand by and watch while someone else takes over that
skyscraper that you just spent so much time and effort building?

Contents

45 Building cards suitable for both right and left handed players. These are used to choose which block gets built on.

1 Board, showing 6 world famous cities, each at present undeveloped, plus a scoring table.

96 Building elements. 24 in each of 4 colours, of varying sizes from 1 to 4 storeys.

4 Score markers, Single storey building elements, one in each colour.

1 Yellow marker to indicate the first player in the round.

These Rules.

Preparation

Each player chooses one colour. The 24 building elements in that colour make up
their stock but they can be left in the box for the moment.

Each player then places their score marker at the base of the scoring table.

Next choose a starting player. They take the yellow marker to remind everyone
who starts the round.

Finally shuffle the cards and deal four face down to each player. The remaining
cards are left in a pile face down by the board.

Play of the Game

Starting with the player with the yellow marker, each player takes 6 building
elements in their colour from the box, and puts them down in front of them. The
remaining elements stay in the box for the present. Only when all these six
elements have been used may the players take more.

Now the first player chooses one of their cards, lays it down face up, and places
a building element onto the relevant block in any of the six cities. (see under
"Use of Cards", and "How to build"). Then they draw one new card from the
deck.

The other players, in clockwise order, each carry out the same three actions,
play a card, place an element, draw a new card.

Once all players have used all six building elements, then the first round is
over. They now receive scores for their buildings, (see under "Scoring"). They
place their score markers onto the appropriate space on the scoring table.

Once all scores have been noted, the player with the yellow marker passes it to
the player to their left who starts the next round.

Buildings built in earlier rounds stay on the board, allowing cities to develop
further until game end. There is no limit on how tall a tower may be.

Each player draws six more building elements in their colour and the second and
subsequent rounds are played as per the first. At the end of the fourth round
all building elements have been used up, and once the scores for the last round
have been worked out, the game is over.

The player with the highest score after the fourth round wins the game.

Use of Cards

When playing a card the player should lay it down next to the board with the two
squares against the board. The small red square shows which of the nine building
plots in each city may be built on. The player has a free choice as to which
city they build in, so every card allows building on one of six possible building
plots.

The building plot shown by a card is different, depending on the direction in
which the card is laid. This is not a problem, but it is important that each
player plays all their cards in the same orientation throughout the game.

All cards played after the first are laid on top of the first card played so as
to maintain this consistency of orientation. They should be played so that only
the uppermost card is visible.

A card may be used to build in any of the six cities.

Once all cards have been used they should be collected, reshuffled and replaced
face down by the board.

How to Build

Towers belong to the last player to build on them, ie the colour of the uppermost
storey designates the owner.

Players may put any size of building element onto empty spaces or onto their own
towers.

For towers owned by opponents the following rule must be obeyed, After the new
element has been added to the tower, there must be at least as many storeys of
the complete tower in the new owner's colour as in the previous owner's. Some
examples of this rule are shown at the bottom of page two of the rules.

Scoring

Once all the players have used all six of their initial draw of building
elements; the first round is over, and it is time to work out the scores for the
round. There are three ways of scoring points.

The Highest Tower

If there is just one tower that is higher than any other, then the owner of that
tower receives 3 points. If two or more towers are equal highest then no one
gets the points.

Majorities

For every city, any player who owns more towers in that city than any other
player gets 2 points. If no player has a majority in the city then no one gets
any points.

Single Towers

Players receive one point for every tower they own. They get this point even if
the tower has already scored points through beiung the highest overall or part of
a majority.

The players each add together all their points and put their marker stone onto
the relevant space on the scoring table. In the second third and fourth rounds
they add their score for the round to their previous score.

Example

At the bottom of page 3 there is an example of a possible situation at the end of
Round 1.
This is scored as follows.

Highest Tower

The highest tower is the Blue tower in Frankfurt, the Blue player receives 3 points.

Majorities

Black has a majority in both Frankfurt and Hong Kong, he has two towers in each,
the other two players only one. The single Blue tower in Sydney and the single
Red one in Sao Paulo also score points for majorities in these two citys for very
little outlay. In Cairo and Manhattan, no player has a majority, so no one gets
any points for those two cities. Totals here are 4 points for Black, 2 each for
Blue and Red.

Single Towers

Black has five towers, Blue three, Red four and Green four.

The total points for the round are therefore, Black, 9 points, Blue 8 points, Red
6 points and Green 4 points. The coloured score markers are moved to the
relevant spaces on the scoring track.

End of Game

At the end of four rounds all the building elements have been used. There
follows a final reckoning and the player with the highest total score at the end
is the winner.

2 and 3 player Games

With 3 players the players take four rather than six elements at the start of
each round and play over six rounds. The player with the highest score after six
rounds is the winner.

With 2 players each player takes two colours. They take four elements of each of
their colours before each round. Players alternately play one building element
of their choice. They may play their colours in whatever order they like. Each
colour scores individually as if there were four players and the winner is the
player with the highest combined score for their two colours.

The Godzilla Variant

Well, Manhattan is already a good game. But, after having played a bit too
much poker, Eric Moore and I were discussing the game and I said "Well, Ben
can't wait to steal a godzilla from an Alan Moon game and play Manhattan with
it."

A few minutes later, these rules were born.

Setup and Play

Take any convenient counter (of course, a Godzilla from one of Alan's games is
preferred) and set it in the center of any city. For purposes of Godzilla, the
cities form a 2x3 rectange that wraps around at both edges. Play of the game is
completely normal, except, after you play a card and build a piece, Godzilla
moves. If you played a card that let you build in the center, Godzilla doesn't
move. If you played a card that let you build in any other space, Godzilla moves
in that direction (diagonally if you built in a corner, horizantally or
vertically if you built on an edge). Any building that Godzilla steps on is
destroyed.

Credits

This sick idea was jointly conceived by Brian Bankler and Eric Moore.

Thanks to Ben Peal for the inspiration.

(The reason that we didn't give the center movement is that we felt giving it
a wild move was too powerful, as the center is already a good card to get
(IOHO).)